What will this do for Fauxtographers everywhere?

[e.rose]

A friend of mine shared this on my wall today...

Lytro Launches to Transform Photography with $50M in Venture Funds (TCTV)

I know once upon a time someone had posted and article either about this concept or about this exact camera, but after reading this article and while watching the video my first thought was: "Man... photographers are pissed about people buying DSLRs and thinking their photographers from the get go... wait till THIS sh*t comes out. Then there's REALLY gonna be a problem!"

"Camera that makes it impossible to miss focus? I'M A PHOTOGRAPHER!"

So I'm just curious as to what your thoughts are. On the product itself... on the people who will drop the dough to get their hands on this product... on your day... on your plans for the weekend... I don't care.

 

[480sparky44 44]

Déjà vu !

 

[Mike_E]

Anybody can dip a brush into paint but that doesn't make them a painter.

There have always been pretenders but it's always been about the talent, not the medium.

 

[D-B-J]

Every picture they show seems soft.. Sure, you can switch focus between background and foreground, but a soft photo is soft. So basically we need a whole new camera because we can't focus correctly? Seems like a waste to me.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

will it mount to the 24-70 f/2.8 I just ordered or should I return the lens

 

[OrionsByte]

I went to their site and was looking through their demo photos, and it seems like the point of their technology is not so much to take the picture and focus later, but to be able to "tell a story" by allowing people to interactively explore it later. If anything, I think that would make composition even more important, but like any new technology, the bulk of people that get their hands on it won't really use it to its full potential and they'll just see it as a way to "always have perfect focus."

I think it's going to end up having a fairly small rate of adoption, personally.

 

[Derrel]

It looks like an amazing new technology. I remember seeing some blurbs on this technology several years ago, with the hundreds of different lenses, capturing a scene from so many different angles and with different focusing points. It looks like perhaps the technology has actually advanced above the level of laboratory curiosity, and might be ready to make some type of real-world debut. $50M is not all that much venture capital though. I wonder if they can actually produce any kind of retail-ready product with that little amount of money. Of course, if it's really as cool as they say, it will attract more VC money. Thanks for sharing the link!

 

[KmH]

What will this do for Fauxtographers everywhere?

Little if anything I think.

The reason so many have difficulty with focus today is they don't understand the technology. So, making the technology even more complex won't likely help.

If you notice in that sample image only 1 focus plane at a time can be used.

Plus it says nothing about motion blur from using the wrong shutter speed.